Did Apple invent the iPad? Or did Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke? Samsung is using the above clip as a piece of evidence in its defense against Apple's patent lawsuit over the Galaxy S and similar tablet computers.

Samsung notes that "the tablet disclosed in the clip has an overall rectangular shape with a dominant display screen, narrow borders, a predominately flat front surface, a flat back surface (which is evident because the tablets are lying flat on the table's surface), and a thin form factor." You don't actually see the actor interacting with the tablet's user interface, but plenty of other science fiction movies and TV shows have depicted tablets, including Star Trek's PADD.

Science fiction has been used as prior art in patent lawsuits before — Robert A. Heinlein described something like a waterbed in a 1930s short story, and this was cited in a successful case against someone who wanted to patent the waterbed in the 1960s. [Apple Insider]